Dearest Karcists! It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since we last announced our St. Nicholas’ Day group working. We were incredibly touched by the success of last year’s St. Nicholas’ Day Candle Service, which allowed Key and I (Sfinga) to raise over $2000 USD for our Cabula as part of a winter fundraiser. This year, we’ve decided to continue in our newfound tradition of December Nikoljdan (the Serbian Orthodox feast of St. Nicholas on the 19th of December) workings and open up this opportunity again into an even more involved community rite. As the winter grows and the days approach the longest night, we intend to take up the banner of Sveti Nikola once more and build on this opportunity to instantiate a yearly tradition of workings by our hands for the community—both in magic and in proceeds.
By donating to this group rite, your name (or the name of a loved one—please contact us if you would like the name to be different from that which appears on the PayPal receipt) will be dressed in two different petitions: a ritual of fortune, levity, and joy from myself, Sfinga, and a ritual for road opening, insight, and wisdom from B. Key. The goals are closely aligned with the previous year’s rite, and they will likely keep these themes going forward throughout the years with some changes determined by divination, albeit the methodologies will vary in the spirit of St. Nicholas’ many traditions. This year, we will be working primarily with by the light of the sorcerous lamp, calling on the saint as both navigator amidst the stormy seas and devil perched on the perilous cliffs.
Key and I will once more draw on our familiarity of St. Nicholas veneration from the Serbian and Dutch folk traditions. Last year’s working was a candle service, and this year candles will only be one part of a greater whole, in which we will construct two complex oil lamps (one for the saint and one for the devil, as is tradition) with each name given directly to the herbal matter within. From these two mothers we will create many daughter-lamps which we will complete the feast with by floating them out into the lake to light the voyage for each named party’s prosperity, success, luck, and cunning insight into future possibilities in the new year. We will also prepare a feast for the saint and all the spirits that walk with him. In addition to a medley of Serbian and Dutch foods, a slava bread will also be prepared, whose crumbs, along with Thursday salt and a prosperity powder, will be added to the daughter-lamps we will float into the waters before midnight. We’re looking to double the offerings and double the effort for this year, and continue the momentum ever forward in love, honour, and gratitude to all the communities that have nourished us and whom we hope to continue nourishing in return!
This time will also mark the beginning of a series of workings on Sveta Varvara (the 17th of December on the Old Calendar for St. Barbara), linking the trinity of successive days of 17th (Varvara), 18th (Sava Osvećeni), and 19th (Nikola) for the growing of Christmas wheat and oracular power. Several charms will grow out of these workings which we will keep you updated on, including an exciting collaboration we’ll be able to speak more on in the new year.
A blog post containing pictures and our reflections on the ritual will go live in the days following the feast so that all who participated may have a record of its completion. The rite will be performed on the 19th of December.
If you would like to submit your name for this working, please use the link below. Subscribers to our Esteemed Initiate tier on Patreon are automatically entered into this rite at a discount as part of their monthly group ritual service.
All proceeds will go directly to our Cabula, as was the case last year, in the spirit of the Winter holidays. As always, we hope that this intersection of our traditions and communities serves you well in your New Year’s petitions and plans, and provides an ample boost to all you seek to grow and harvest in the coming months!
Thank you for participating in this year’s rite! A follow up post will be made available in the coming days.
After a full month of gathering, conjuration, and consecration, I am deeply pleased to unveil a new offering in the holy name of Sveti Haralampije, or St. Charalambos—the beloved saint known in the Serbian folk tradition as the Gospodar Svih Bolesti, or “Lord of All Diseases.” Here is a saint so beloved and revered for his capacity to heal any and all ailments that his very feast, celebrated February 10th or 23rd depending on the calendar, is understood to be a last chance to ward off the Čuma, a spirit of disease and illness sometimes said to be the wrathful form of the folk saint Bibi, who is her kinder, protective face when placated appropriately. The Balkan traditions vary on which saint’s day is the true feast upon which the Čuma is propitiated, with Čumindan being for the majority of Serbia Sveti Atanasije, whose feast at the end of January aligns with one of the most common dates that Bibi herself is honoured. It is during this period, right before Sretenje or Old Candlemas, that various rituals are performed to placate her wrath so that she does not become the “right hand of the Devil” and lay waste upon our settlements in her black-cloaked form as wandering witch.
It was on St. Athanasius’ day that this work began, then, with the preliminary offerings given unto Čuma and Bibi in both guises: shoes so that she may walk freely, a walnut comb so that she may brush her hair, a mirror so that she may see herself, and various sweets that she may refresh herself. According to folk tradition, by showing her this kindness and welcoming her as a house guest, as opposed to denying her entry and sustenance, her wrath is cooled, and she instead enters as an aunt and ally, softened by the hospitality. Much of Balkan folk magic, of course, involves the naming of familial pacts, such that even troublesome spirits are given their valued role within the clan structure. As Čuma is given her kindness, so too is she implored to pass over us and return that kindness by sparing us from her hordes of plague witches.
These blessings were built upon through the important holy day of Sretenje (Candlemas), finally leading into Charalambos’ day proper. The Lord of All Diseases is likewise given as one of the candidate dates of Čumindan in other parts of the Balkans—though more importantly this, for some villages, is the true end of the Wolf Days (the winter season beginning in early November), and the last opportunity to thank and herald the Master of the Wolves. It is on his day that the serpents below begin to burrow their way ever closer to the surface of the light, stirred by Old Candlemas and drawn towards the first Saturday of Great Lent, Todorova Subota or Hroma Subota (Theodore’s Saturday or Lame Saturday), in which Veliki Todor and his todorci riders embark on their nightly procession.
St. Charalambos is particularly notable for having lived to 113 years old. He was brutally martyred despite his age, lacerated with iron hooks and flayed alive, his only response to his torturers being: “Thank you, my brethren, for scraping off the old body and renewing my soul for new and eternal life.” It should come as no surprise, then, that St. Charalambos is deeply linked to serpent power within the folk tradition, as is any saint who was flayed; his ecstasies being inherently intertwined with the healing potency of shedding the skin.
In addition to being a powerful healer, he is also the patron saint of apiaries and beekeepers, precisely because he was able to heal others with honey. A jar of honey was sanctified in his name on his feast, during which he was also honoured with freshly baked bread, and the honey from within was used to mark my front door as well as each icon of him that I possess, in honour of his power and in memory of his pact with Čuma.
It was this bread and honey that laid the groundwork for the charms I created with him. From the period of his feast to Todorova Subota, I continuously prayed to the retinue of wolf and serpent spirits to which he belongs, gathering the necessary herbs and preparing the sorcerous powders that would go within these charms. In addition to propitiating Veliki Todor with sacrifice, I continually kept my shrine to the Master of the Wolves in illumination throughout, reminding him through prayer and offering of the ledger of deeds and boons made good on. Throughout this process, I continually prayed for the petition to be allowed to create a set of charms under his auspices for the healing of disease and the prevention of illness, by way of creating mobile, portable satellites of this pact between the martyr and Čuma for others to benefit from.
When the time finally came to create these, and the requisite omens were revealed, I prepared a set of cotton muslin drawstring bags, suffumigating them with myrrh and anointing them with holy water gathered from a well sacred to St. Charalambos. The bread specially baked for and offered on his feast was divided into equal parts and placed within each bag as a promise of the fulfillment of its magic. Rosemar, thyme, basil, lemon balm, wormwood, broadleaf plantain, eyebright, and many additional herbs picked for their virtues in healing different parts of the body were wrapped around this bread, to which were also divided the full 41 beans used in divination to approve of the recipe and enchantment and a generous helping of specially-made Thursday Salt. In addition to several powders sourced from my own recipes and study, attuned to different deities and fixed stars relevant for this working, I also prepared for each bag one small reflective mirror that was anointed with the honey consecrated on his feast. Each mirror was presented before Čuma, reminding her that whomever carries this bag upon their person has paid her their due and has called her “Aunt”—meaning that as they are family, so too must she treat them kindly and spare them.
To verify that these pacts were confirmed, a specific physical omen was demanded of every single mirror, with no charm being complete without its verified appearance. Key, who was present for the making of these charms, was my secondary witness—we both had to agree that we witnessed the physical manifestation before continuing. The design of these charm bags are intentionally plainer and more subtle than many of my other offerings, so that they may be carried easily on one’s person as an ordinary Christian amulet that one could easily suggest was purchased from a monastery gift shop. My wish is for these to be kept in one’s purse or shoulder bag without any anxiety as to what others would think or feel if they were discovered.
The completed charms before his icon.
Finally, a cumulative offering was given unto Čuma in her guise as Bibi, with candy, mirrors, money, bread, and honey placed before her alongside a walnut comb in memory of her pact. After reciting a lengthy prayer in her honour, she was reminded that each mirror within the charms was given the same honey sweetening her tongue now in St. Charalambos’ cooperation and care, and as such the charms carry, independently of me as their maker, the same blessing and safety my pact with her generates for me. Key and I tied little wooden crosses to each bag using purple thread and oral charms, completing the consecration by extinguishing one beeswax candle’s flame into each cross before relighting it again to instill the spirit fully within. In this way, each cross has already suffered once in the place of its owner—just as we say that lightning does not strike the nettles (“neće grom u koprive” in Serbian, “wo Brennnesseln stehen, schlug der Blitz nicht ein” in German), for nettle already stings as lightning does—so too do many of our rituals involve putting out controlled fire first on the tongue or into the wood of the home so that we are already “bitten” once, and therefore cannot be again by accidents and tempests. Through calling on Christ’s resurrection, each charm was fully imbued and reminded of their pact; that they have already paid their toll to the spirits of disease, and that they have already suffered a blight once. In this way, their conjuration is complete, through the settlement of their virtues and the honouring of their place as wards against all disease and illness, and the swift curing of any aches, pains, and viruses that may come with time.
Carry these on you for protection and to cure ailments. These charms are fully self sufficient and do not need any upkeep, but praying to them, holding them between the hands and above the afflicted area of the body, and anointing the cross with holy oil once a month is always welcome. Pray for continued safety and protection against all blights, in the name of St. Charalambos and Christ Eternal, and walk through the world with renewed confidence and peace.
Twenty of these charms were made under the auspices of St. Charalambos and his retinue, drawing on traditional Balkan folk magical techniques as well as personal innovations through spirit teachings. If you would like to purchase one or more for yourself or a loved one, the link is below and includes shipping. Please allow a week for orders to be fulfilled and shipped to the address provided via PayPal.
All charms have been sold as of March 27, 2025. Thank you so much for your patronage!
O, milosrdni mučeniče, moli se Gospodu za nas, da nas sačuva od gladi i svake bolesti, i da nam podari izobilje plodova zemaljskih, i umnoženje stoke potrebne ljudima i svega što nam je na korist a ponajviše da se udostojimo, molitvama tvojim, Carstva Nebeskog Hrista Boga našega, Kome priliči čast i poklonjenje, sa Bespočetnim Ocem Njegovim i Presvetim Duhom, sada i uvek i u vekove vekova.
On behalf of Key and myself, we truly cannot thank you all enough for your overwhelming support of our first foray into providing a group ritual service. With your generous support, we were able to raise over $2000 USD for our Cabula‘s furnace, all while giving back to the wonderful people who listen along to our podcast and follow our various lectures and online offerings.
As promised, we wanted to share a brief recap of the workings as we completed them. On my end, I and a good friend and fellow practitioner of folk Orthodox magic, Maria (recently featured on The Frightful Howls!) put together slava bread, koljivo, red wine, and baklava for Sveti Nikola before one of the several icons I have for him as the patron saint of my patrilineal grandmother’s family. For the over a hundred people who participated in the rite, I prepared one pure beeswax candle for each name, which I wrote across a piece of paper and anointed with holy oil, prosperity oil, and a protection oil specifically made to avert the Evil Eye. Crossing the names with a longform prayer to St. Nicholas in Serbian, I placed it at the bottom of a large, terra-cotta dish and filled it with Thursday Salt, flour, sorcerous powders of prosperity, and multiple kinds of grains to nourish the saint and his horse on their journey to fulfill each spoken and unspoken desire.
Sfinga’s table laid for St. Nicholas.
Each candle was individually anointed with the same combination of oils and placed within the dish, with a separate name spoken over each as they were lit. Maria and I stood vigil over the flames until the last extinguished, scorching the flour mixture until it was the same texture and appearance as the Thursday Salt. We then emptied out the bowl into a cloth bundle, over which we laid the bread and petition, and tied it up to be taken to church. After the mixture heard the mass, a bean divination was performed to elect where it should be buried for the greatest efficiency in manifestation, with the answer generated being by a riverbed. The day after Nikoljdan proper, I carried the bundle to the very same river I had consecrated all my tools for the Tuba Veneris, and let it lie there with an additional helping of rakija, incense, and prayer.
Sfinga’s candles reducing into the powder.
On Key’s end, he prepared a wash of fresh and dried citrus peels, cloves, star anise, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves inscribed with prayers, and allspice berries by boiling them all together, and allowed the aromatics to fumigate the candles used for the rite. This water was then allowed to cool, and mixed with holy water taken from three churches. A portion of this water was then used to wash the items on the shrine, the offerings of fruit, and the candles in the names of each respective donor, while the remaining two portions were divided into glasses and offered after receiving additional prayers and blessings to serve as vessels of refreshment and direction to the spirits inevitably called by the offering.
Key’s table set for St. Nicholas.
Key then hydrated a fireproof basin full of sand with another blend of holy waters from three churches, orange blossom water, and a splash of the herbal wash, then prayed over it a rosary dedicated to St. Nicholas, asking for his intercession. Each candle was then lit, naming each donor while doing so, then placed in the basin after pausing to interpret the omens that emerged from the candle as it pertained to each person’s condition. Appropriate oral formulas or prayers were offered to overcome corresponding blockages, uncross conditions, or wash away other forms of spiritual detritus.
Oats were then offered to provide sustenance to St. Nicholas’ horse, such that it may have the strength to bear each patron forward along their desired path, and the fruit offered before the saint with a prayer that he confer blessings of foresight, clarity, and prosperity on each patron. Incense was also offered to the Saint and the spirits present, and vigil was kept over the candles as further omens for the collective were observed and individual candles were maintained with additional remedies.
The candles burning down, each with their personal petition.
Each successive candle built off of the momentum of the last, eventually feeding into the sensation of the blustering squalls that drive the ships patroned by this saint forward, until the enchantment itself was caught by this wind and carried forth to each recipient.
Once our work was complete, we sent all the proceeds raised by the working to our Cabula, and gave the good Saint one final battery of prayers in thanks for his swift intercession, praising him for his good works and petitioning him once more over to elevate the wealth, prosperity, and luck of all those who submitted their names and the names of their loved ones to our group ritual. We are truly so grateful to each and every one of you who contributed to this first group offering, and look forward to offering more in the future for more good causes!
In honour of the holiday season, and the continual procession of some of the most important feasts and saint days shared in common by all three of our cultural backgrounds and magical services, we’re pleased to announce a special candle service held by Sfinga and B. Key on the Serbian Orthodox slava of Nikoljdan: St. Nicholas’ Day.
Recently on our podcast, The Frightful Howls You May Hear, myself and Key interviewed their Tata in Quimbanda de Angola, Tata Apokan (Jesse Hathaway Diaz), on the ins and outs of initiation, priesthood, and what it means to commit to a lifelong study in an oral tradition, especially in matters of co-creating community alongside elders and spirits alike. This was an exceptionally special episode to the both of our hearts and we’re absolutely delighted to continue having our Tata back on the podcast for many more to come! With the winter season fast approaching, and our temple in need of a new furnace, we wanted to contribute to our Cabula and our beautiful community at The Frightful Howls alike by offering our very first candle service fundraiser, in honour of an important saint at the heart of all of our practices.
By donating to this candle service, you will receive two workings performed on your behalf, or on the behalf of the person you wish to name: a prosperity ritual from myself, Sfinga, steeped in the association of Sveti Nikola as the Gospodar Vukova (Master of the Wolves), drawing on Serbian folk magical techniques, and a road opening and insight ritual from B. Key, drawing on Dutch folk magic and sailing lore. Combined under the auspices of the Serbian Orthodox slava of Nikoljdan on December 19th, both rites will be cast for you to bring fortune, as well as the clarity and vision to acquire and maintain it.
With St. Nicholas being perhaps the most important and celebrated slava in Serbia, it is no surprise that his cult inherited many of the qualities of the pre-Christian Dabog, the chthonic deity of healing, magic, death, wolves, mining, watermills, agriculture, and far more. Just as St. George, St. Michael, St. Sava, and St. Demetrius inherited many of the same qualities of Dabog through the cult of the Master of the Wolves, so too did St. Nicholas most prominently, as explored by the great ethnologist Veselin Čajkanović in his important work O srpskom vrhovnom Bogu. His cult is well-known throughout the Balkans and across its many religions, heralding reflections on divination, prosperity, travel, and seafaring.
It is these aspects that will be highlighted and honoured in my portion of the service. Each donation will allow you to submit your own name or the name of a loved one to the ritual, which will comprise of an offering of koljivo, slava bread, and red wine presented to the saint in the traditional manner of a Krsna slava, and a pure beeswax candle anointed with holy oil, prosperity oil, and protection oil. Each name will be added to the group petition and burned down into ash, which will be added to a charm of Thursday salt, holy bread, dirts from various Orthodox and Catholic churches of St. Nicholas from across the Balkans, and key powders prepared for this purpose. Once completed, the bundle will be taken to a mass for further blessing and then interred safely in one of three potential places of power, as bean divination performed on the feast proper will elect.
Key will draw on his own knowledge of Dutch folk magic and seafaring magics to open the roads to that same prosperity and grant the insight and divinatory ability to capture, retain, and protect the blessings to come in the New Year. Each name will be etched into candles fumigated with and asperged by an aromatic wash of citrus, clove, anise, holy water, world currencies, and other herbs for insight and security of received boons, blessed with prayers and recited formulas for the same purpose. Each candle will be presented to the shrine alongside an offering of citrus fruit to recollect the gold St. Nicholas so famously distributed in order to avert an unlucky future, and various grains associated with prosperity, diversion of misfortune, and a gentle nourishment of the senses, as to match the provisions of his journey by sea and to strengthen his guiding horse before travelling the road ahead. All of the edible components will then be donated to a nearby food bank in his name to continue this charity and distribute this enchantment to the world.
An Instagram post containing pictures and our reflections on the ritual will go live in the days following the feast so that all who participate may have a record of its completion.
All proceeds will go directly to our Cabula. We hope that this intersection of our traditions and communities serves you well in your New Year’s petitions and plans, and provides an ample boost to all you seek to grow and harvest in the coming months!
Our sincerest, heartfelt thanks to everyone who donated to this fundraiser! We not only met but exceeded our initial goal by double! A follow up post on the ritual as it was executed will be posted in the coming days. We’re so grateful to each and every one of you who contributed to this first group offering.
By the red cape of the soldier-martyr, By the red wings of the adversary underfoot, By the red-drenched spear piercing its maw,
The Charms of the Victory-bearer are born, baptized, and bled.
The charms at the foot of a pacted tree.
These potent bundles were first birthed on May 6th, the Orthodox feast of St. George, which this year happened to be the day immediately following Easter. I’ve much joked with friends about how much “longer” Lent felt this year in light of Easter being May 5th, but this too came with its own advantages. That the eve of Đurđevdan (St. George’s Day) was itself Easter provided the perfect folkloric confluence for a number of the key ingredients which went into crafting these sorcerous allies—fleetfooted, valiant, and unrelenting as the martyr himself.
Having collected the necessary herbs either on the eve or at dawn on the feast proper, retrieving each with the appropriate offering left in turn and through the auspices of a bajalica or basma (oral charm) specifically used on St. George’s Day for those very plants themselves, I began the core powder within the first hours of the feast. The shell of first red egg of Easter—a prized ingredient within the Balkan folk tradition—was crumbled and left to soak among the blood clots of an offered rooster, consecrated with the Jesus Prayer and given veneration through Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday all. On the martyr’s day proper, I baked the kravaj or kravajče, a solar bread intended to mimic the wreaths which would crown cattle for protection, the first sacrificial lamb for protection, and the milk buckets that would receive the first milking of St. George’s Day for fertility. Across numerous villages, and most famously recorded in Vrtovac—a village in Serbia that has been much-studied for its detailed St. George’s Day customs of sacrifice and fertility magic—this bread would be wrapped in geranium, sprinkled with salt, and placed by the nearest river as an offering; or alternatively divided up amongst anthills so that the ants themselves may “lock up” the fertility gathered to protect it from negativity and the Evil Eye.
At the same time, bread baked specifically for a saint’s feast is itself a powerful fetish to be used in the creation of charms. I was trained to add a little piece to each charm I make (a ritual bread that was prayed over for many hours was a key component in the Master of the Wolves charms we released last year), and this case was no different. The rest of the kravaj was divided up between spirits, friends, anthills, tree hollows, the dead, and a river, each with a corresponding oral charm spoken over the piece as Thursday Salt was sprinkled over its resting place, tied to its post with white horse’s hair.
As an additional offering to the martyr and the spirits of his entourage, I cooked belmuž—a sheep’s cheese cornmeal porridge—and gave portions to each of my assisting familiars and to the holy saint himself. The banquet was laid over a red cloth that was consecrated as his cape, fumigated in red Orthodox St. George’s incense I brought back with me from my last trip to Greece, and sprinkled with wine, rooster blood, sheep’s milk, and holy water with sprigs of basil and plantain. When the time came to make the charms themselves, it was this cloth that was divided into the 21 squares that would host the cores birthed on his feast.
The feast given unto St. George.
Herbal materia, both freshly gathered and dried from previous corresponding saint feasts, were combined within a vessel along with personal fixed star powders made in my tradition, specific dirts corresponding with the nature of these charms, and the first red egg of Easter, which had itself undergone numerous rituals upon Christ’s rebirth. As the serpents of Aldebaran and Regulus were massaged for their dew, so too were the armies of St. George supplicated, in memory of his eternal triumph over the aždaja and his folkloric allyship with the zmaj. Propitiating the saint and the gods he masks alike, the raw powder was left incubate within the kravaj, veiled by his bloodied cloak against the glare of any stars not pacted to this working.
Finally, once the raw bundles passed their requisite three omens of manifestation—that they were indeed alive and bringing victory unto their bearers—I was given license by my spirits to bind them still. All three of us at With Cunning & Command and The Frightful Howls You May Hear take efficacy and results extremely seriously; nothing we offer to the world can be sold before it has succeeded in its tests of fealty and power. The trials these cores underwent were in line with their intended use: the overcoming of obstacles, the germination of fertility, the destruction of nightmares, the evil eye, and any other such spiritual malady, and the ultimate triumph of their carrier in matters of competition. Be they deployed for the protection of fertility (in matters of one’s own, those of animals and plants, or even those of other magical workings so that they may bear fruit), the defeat of enemies in matters where only one may prevail, or the destruction of jealous gazes, lingering spirits with ill intentions, or stray miasma and malefica brought home underfoot, the Charms of the Victory-bearer are the white-hot flash of the spear, the crack of the celestial whip, the hooves of the thundering hero-steed crushing each viper before it ever slinks across the threshold.
The base mixture includes allies such as basil, linden, geranium, nettle, chamomile, plantain, dandelion, and many other potent herbs collected in the dark such that they cannot be named. Dirts from the graves of 23 soldiers, 23 anthills, and 23 crossroads, as well as dirt from the village Başköy/Potamia where St. George was said to have been born, are combined with powders of Aldebaran and Regulus created in a manner taught to me in my tradition, as well as a more conventional Sun in Aries powder elected by Salt. Serpent bone, St. George incense, white beans from a chart that approved these charms with the most blessed omen of the Three Stars, and many more implements made their way into the bundles, which were then tied with red thread, a piece of carnelian, and a small pocket icon of St. George, finally bound over with white waxed linen thread. Each knot had the appropriate oral charm breathed into it, an offering of air bestowed as the final gift before they were once again perfumed in incense and left to breathe the sunlight for the first time since the feast.
Having received countless prayers, rich offerings, and diligent attention to omens, auguries, and folkloric expressions of St. George’s might in nature, these charms are finally available for purchase. They may be kept in one’s backpack or purse, nestled in their place of work, placed by the hearth or on appropriate shrines, or hung by the main door to your home. Give them a candle (white, red, or beeswax) and a shot of vodka, brandy, or whiskey once a month, preferably on the full moon to keep them refreshed and spry. These are workhorses and soldiers, aggressively targeting areas of weakness and conquering obstacles in your path. If you have an enemy you need to triumph over, or are looking to be the victor selected from among a pool of candidates, place the charm with a lit candle over a copy of your application with your petition written over it in red. Tuck the charm by your pillow or hang it over your bed to protect against nightmares and vampiric spirits, or to assist in conception and sexual virility. Gift the bundle to your protective spirits to act as arms for them, becoming a battery of power for them to wield against disease, poverty, malefica, and loss in the pursuit of securing steadfast agency.
If you’d like to purchase one for yourself, please click the link below. Shipping is included within the price. They will be mailed out within a week of purchase and a tracking code will be e-mailed to the PayPal address used to buy them.
All St. George’s Charms of the Victory-bearer are sold out. Thank you for your patronage!
It is not my hand that cuts these cords, but the hand of St. George upon his holiest day. Amen, amen, amen.
Inspired by our recent bespoke talismanic work, and much-teased on our podcast (that more such charms are indeed coming!) I’m proud to offer a new ally to our kind readers and listeners: protection chaplets diligently crafted under lamplight reflected by the watchful wolf-eyes of St. Christopher.
The talismans receiving blessings following their assembly.
As much-beloved protector and guide for all three of us at With Cunning & Command, St. Christopher is the immensely popular cynocephalic patron of travel by land and sea, athletics, bachelors, and surfing. A deeper analysis of the figure of the dog-headed warrior reveals a deeply-rooted identification with Hermanubis and resultant patronages of the dead, exorcism, treasure hunting, storms, gardening, conditions such as epilepsy and the plague, and of course the mysteries of wolves and dogs (all deserving of posts in their own right).
His most exoteric magical function is, however, situated in his protection of travelers, especially those on long journeys. Images of St. Christopher carrying the Christ-child are said to have excellent protective properties toward this purpose, so great in potency that simply viewing an image of the saint is said to be equivalent in spiritual benefits to receiving the Eucharist, prevent illness (especially plagues), and to avert any sort of sudden death. This lead to a massive proliferation of materials related to his cult, especially throughout Europe and the Americas—in a survey of images conducted for the British Archeological Association in 1904, a Mrs. Collier reports that his images were only outnumbered in English churches by those of the Virgin Mary. As a result, St. Christopher metals serve as the protection talismans par excellence in the popular imagination and find instantiations in folk magical traditions the world over. For these talismans, I decided to fuse the two most common protective modes for drivers and travelers that incorporate these properties: the charm bag and the rosary.
As recorded in Cat Yronwode’s book Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic, “A red flannel mojo containing Mugwort, Comfrey root, and a Saint Christopher medal is said to provide safety and protection to those who visit foreign places or venture away from home, and to make journeys more pleasant by eliminating interference in one’s travel plans.” The full composition of these charms will by necessity remain secret, but the core around which they are built is composed of the same mugwort and comfrey, each empowered and focused in their tasks by additional materia. Rosaries also serve as powerful and near-ubiquitous protective talismans throughout the Catholic world, especially seen hanging from the rearview mirrors of automobiles. This tradition has spawned various forms of rosaries and chaplets specifically made for this purpose, a set of which I repurposed for the construction of these talismans. The prayer that adorns the reverse of the image of St. Christopher reads: “São Cristóvão e São Miguel, protegei este motorista aqui na terra, para que ele não chegue adiantado no Céu!”, meaning: “Saint Christopher and Saint Michael, protect this motorist here on Earth, so that he doesn’t arrive early in Heaven!”
While a little more straightforward in its construction in comparison to other talismans I’ve created, these particular chaplets differentiate themselves through effort: they received extensive daily blessings and lavish offerings on my shrine to St. Christopher over a period of six weeks, culminating in various rosaries being said on each individual set of beads, and the charm bundles being fumigated through a sequence of astrologically elected incenses to further construct the enchantment. This particular diligence reflects the number and nature of the dangers inherent to the act of driving, each of which requires the utmost care in its aversion.
All St. Christopher’s Protection Chaplets are sold out. Thank you for your patronage!
With Cunning & Command 